This is a monstrous fall from grace of epic proportions in American college football. Joe Paterno's legacy will forever be tarnished. The Board of Trustees/Regents acted swiftly and decisively to address this disgusting situation. Kudos to them for taking this action.

AMEN. Paterno turned his head, only minimally reported child rape and let the serial perpetrator stay on his coaching staff for over 5 years.

It appears he might deserve this massive fall from grace. He seems torchured over not asking questions. I tend to believe him based on the grand jury report that he did not know about specific rapes or sodomies - only that his coach was "horsing around" with a 10 year old boy in the shower. A massive mea culpa campaign and complete cooperation might restore some level of reputation.

I agree that it was the right thing for them to do, but it is really on the board to oversee the University in the first place. Boards frequently allow athletic programs to become the personal fiefdoms of the coaches, which they clearly did in this case as well. So the board was Dr. Frankenstein now forced to kill their own monster. They did the right thing, but they are certainly not heroes.